Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Courtney MacDougall . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Courtney thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I went to college in my late 20’s to pursue my Bachelor of Science in Human Services. When I graduated from college I got a job working with the foster youth population. I was working as a case manager/client care coordinator at an agency that provided mental health services to foster youth and their families. Foster youth are a very underserved population in most communities and working closely with biological parents, foster parents, social workers, therapists, school staff and many other individuals involved in these children’s lives was a very eye-opening experience. Through my training I learned so much about trauma and the impact trauma has on individuals and their overall functioning. Reading and hearing the stories of the trauma our clients experienced was heartbreaking, unimaginable and downright awful. I had been working at the agency for a little over two years when I got pregnant with my first son. I was overjoyed to have a baby and savored every second with him while I was one maternity leave. When I went back to work after maternity leave something had changed about the way I could handle hearing about the trauma our clients experienced. I wasn’t just an empathetic and compassionate person anymore, now I was a mom. Being a mom changed me and I started suffering from a lot of stress, anxious thoughts and feelings and an overall sense of sadness. One of my close friends asked me to go to a hot yoga class with her and I jumped at the opportunity to take part in a little self-care. I had never done yoga before and to be honest I didn’t know very much about yoga at all. This wasn’t your average beginner yoga class. This was hot yoga class, which means it is a 105 degrees in the room with 40 percent humidity. That first yoga class changed my life. I was hooked. For the first time in a long time I was able to connect to my breath and my body and I felt a sense of relief. I left that class feeling relaxed, yet invigorated at the same time. I went back for more and after my third hot yoga class I looked at my friend and said, “I am going to teach yoga to kids.” I didn’t know what that meant at the time, but I knew that if I could help kids connect to their breath and their body then I could help give them skills they could use to calm their bodies and their minds. I continued working with foster youth and did yoga when time allowed. As time passed, I became more passionate about the population I was working as well as deepening my yoga practice. I did a lot of advocating for a population who often does not have a voice and I felt like I was always defending their behaviors. Whether it was at home or school, I was continuously trying to help the adults in these children’s lives understand the impact of trauma and the correlation between trauma and behavior. Part of my job was teaching coping skills in an effort to help my clients improve interactions with others and behaviors. In the back of my mind it never felt like I was doing enough. Two years after my first yoga class while I was still working at the agency I found out I was pregnant again. I continued do the “hard work” throughout my pregnancy. I continued to advocate for my clients. I showed up week after week for my clients, we built healthy relationships and they knew I cared. While I was on maternity leave my co-worker, who is also a close friend sent me an email about a local yoga studio offering a yoga teacher training. I jumped at the opportunity and signed up for yoga teacher training within two day of reading the email. Looking back, it feels very impulsive and out of character for me to commit to something so big without really thinking about it. I signed up for yoga teacher training in the summer of 2018 and started training in January of 2019. It was such a big commitment. Two weekends a month for four mouths, plus time during the week completing assignments, working full-time, being a mom to two beautiful boys under the age of three, being a wife and helping manage a home. My plate was full to say the least, but I was happy and loved every second of it. The first night of yoga teacher training our teacher asked us, ” why are you here?” I said “want to teach yoga to children. I truly believe that if I can help these kids understand the importance of slowing down, listening to their body and connecting to their breath then I can give them a foundation for success as they get bigger.” All of my fellow yogi’s siting in the room with me looked at me with bright eyes and one by one offered me their support and encouragement. I knew in that moment I was on the right path. I had a lot of knowledge about the type of interventions school offer and techniques school staff use to help calm students down, but I also knew that I could offer so much more. With my knowledge from working in mental health combined with what I was going to learn in yoga teacher training I knew I had something really special to offer. I completed yoga teacher training in April of 2019. Although, I was a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT 200), I continued to work in mental health. I taught my clients yoga here there, but I was a knew teacher and felt nervous teaching all that I had learned, In September of 2019, my husband told me he thought I should quit my job. I was shocked, People don’t quit their jobs in this day in this age. I had health insurance, a 401k, vacation, a great work family and this is why I went to college. There was no way I could quit my job. My husband looked me straight in the eyes and said “you will never start your own business if you keep working in your current job.” He was right. It took me about two weeks to wrap my head around quitting my job, but once I finally decided this was what I needed to do I put in notice at work to pursue my dream of teaching kids’ yoga. It took me a few months to figure things out. I had a vision of me teaching yoga to kids, but other than that I didn’t know what I needed to do. With the help of the same colleague who told me about yoga teacher training we came up with the name Evergreen Yoga and Mindfulness. I started reaching out to people I knew who worked in the schools and told them about my idea to teach kids yoga and mindfulness to students. Everyone loved the idea and fully supported my endeavor. With their help I was able to teach yoga and mindfulness interventions within the schools. In the meantime, I completed a trauma informed yoga teaching training as well as a kid’s yoga teacher training to help me learn skills to teach kids yoga. With a lot of practice, I was able to combine what I learned working in mental health with what I learned in my yoga teacher trainings and create a curriculum to teach in the school. Yoga not only helps to calm the body and relieve stress, but it also helps promote confidence, regulate emotions, enhance focus and reduce feelings of worry and anxiety. I started teaching in the schools in March of 2020. After teaching two classes at my fist school site I was shut-down by COVID. I knew in my heart I was on the right path and doing what I was supposed to be doing, but how was I supposed to pursue my dream if kids weren’t in school and at the time nobody really knew what was going to happen.

Courtney , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Courtney MacDougall and I wear many hats. I am a wife, mother, daughter, sister, yogi, friend and business owner. I grew up in a family with a family history of addiction and a lot of generational trauma. At a young age I knew that I would be someone in my family to break the cycle of addiction and generational trauma. I have always been the “helper” and some may say the caretaker. I was the first to try to solve problems, look at the bright side and offer support or help in whatever capacity I could. When I went to college I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted to help people. At the time, I thought I would most likely work in addiction helping people heal on their path to sobriety. I never really imagined I would work with children, or that I would have such a passion for working with children. After graduating college, I got a job working in mental health with kids. During my interview I remember a member of the interview panel asking me “do you like working with kids?” I answered honestly and said “I don’t really know.” Lucky for me, they gave me a chance and offered me a job. I quickly learned, that I love working with kids. My passion for working with kids lead me to opening my own business in an effort to provide yoga and mindfulness to children.. There are so many benefits to yoga and I knew from my own experience doing yoga that if I could teach children how to listen to their bodies and connect to their breath then they would have skills they could use to navigate life’s stressors as they grow older.

I don’t only teach my students the physical practice of yoga, but I teach them about the importance of understanding how we feel in our bodies, the importance of taking deep breaths, how we all feel “really big feelings” and healthy ways to manage our “really big feelings.” I teach my students to believe in themselves and to say positive affirmations to replace negative thoughts. I use what I have learned from my own personal and work experiences and all the knowledge I acquired during my yoga teacher trainings to help give my students healthy skills they can use to be more successful at home, school and other places they may find themselves having a hard time.

In addition to kids yoga, I also teach private one-on-one yoga sessions as well as teach at other community events here in there when time permits. Kids yoga was the foundation for starting my business, but I am also passionate about mental health and substance abuse. I teach yoga at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility two days a week. I was asked to interview for a yoga instructor position at a substance abuse treatment center and I jumped at the opportunity. I interviewed for the job and was offered the position the next day. It feels very full circle for me to be teaching yoga and mindfulness at a drug and alcohol facility. Me, the child of an alcoholic with experience working in mental health was now going to be working with a population of people that I hold a special place in my heart. Yes, please! I love it there. I love the clients. I love watching them stop and take a deep breath for the first time in who knows how long. I love watching them get stronger. I love seeing them become physically and mentally healthier. I especially love introducing a majority of the clients to yoga and mindfulness. So many clients resisted yoga when we first met. Their bodies hurt from years of drug or alcohol abuse. It is hard for many clients to sit still because when we sit in stillness we start to feel things in our body and that can be really challenging for a lot of people. I do my best to be mindful of where the clients are in their journey and I encourage them to do their best. Usually, when I get them to buy in they really enjoy yoga and want to continue to practice. There is something to be said watching people transform into the best version of themselves and I am honored to be a part of that journey for many of our clients. It is a truly rewarding place to work and I am so proud to be a part of a team of amazing individuals.

Being able to start a business during Covid is something I am really proud of. I faced a lot of challenges when I first started and some days I really felt like giving up. I doubted myself and I doubted my ability to execute my vision. I am a planner in many aspects of my life, but Evergreen Yoga and Mindfulness has really built itself. When I started all I knew was I was going to teach yoga to kids and the rest has fallen into place. Some may say I manifested my dream by saying it out loud 6-years ago, some may say I am lucky, but all I know is that I am blessed and grateful to be doing what I love every day. I am very fortunate to have an abundant amount of support from strong women who owns their own business, and I am especially lucky to have the support of my husband. He is my biggest cheerleader and wouldn’t let me give up. Teaching yoga in the schools and at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program isn’t always easy, but is very rewarding and it makes my heart so full.

I think it is important to remember for anyone reading this, we all need to slow down. We live in a “hustle” society that never stops. We move from one thing to the next without any time in between. In my classes, I really focus on slowing down and listening to our bodies. Our breath is the most powerful tool that we have and if we can learn to manage our breath we can learn to manage so many of life’s stressors. So, do yourself a favor and let your shoulders drop down your back and sit up a little bit straighter, close your eyes and take a few deep breaths and now take a second to notice how you feel.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

When I started teaching at my first school site it was March of 2020. I taught two classes and was shut down by COVID. All of the school sites I had worked so hard to setup where canceled and essentially, I was out a job. I didn’t know what I was going to do as it was such a strange time for all of us and nobody knew what was going to happen. I was scared and worried as I didn’t know what to do next.

When school started again, all the school sites were zooming and I was asked to teach zoom yoga. I was honored that they still wanted to incorporate yoga at their school sites and I knew that if there was any time when we needed to be focusing on mental health and managing “big feelings” it was now. This was a challenge for me as part of teaching yoga in person is being able to connect with your students on a personal level, use their energy to make classes fun and to create classes to be as interactive as possible. I had no idea how I was going to be able to do this through zoom. It was so hard in the beginning and some days I felt like a total failure. There was a lot of trail and error involved and I can honestly say the first month of zoom yoga was the hardest month of me owning a business. I felt like I was drowning and there were so many kids counting on me to provide them with a fun class. Luckily, all of the feedback I was getting was positive. The school sites said the kids loved it, the kids were participating via zoom and it appeared they were having fun. As time passed, I felt more confident in my zoom teachings and found my rhythm. I taught kids yoga via zoom for the whole 2020-2021 school year.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I think I was able to build my reputation by executing my vision. Evergreen Yoga and Mindfulness isn’t your typical yoga business, I am my only employee and I am passionate about the services I deliver. I pride myself on building relationships within my business with the students that I teach as well as with the staff I work with. I do my best to be flexible and accommodating where ever I go as I feel it is very important to make other individuals feel like they are valued. I use both life and work experience to navigate the populations I work with and I cater to need of my clients.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: evergreenyogafresno